Earning a spot on the Little League roster is no longer enough. Parents are now investing in personal trainers to make sure their kid becomes the star player, sacrificing savings and sometimes their child's health in the process.

Youth sports training has grown into a $4.5 billion industry, according to IBISWorld, an industry and market research group. And, for trainers who are increasingly marketing themselves to kids and their folks, it can be a bonanza, with some charging $300 an hour for their services.

The number of kids who use health clubs has more than doubled since 1990, and more than half of fitness professionals now offer one-on-one personal training for kids 18 and younger, according to the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association. But, as more kids get additional training, their teammates who don't pay for outside help can see their performance lag and end up riding the bench.

"If they want to be competitive, they don't have a choice," says Michele Stephenson, a Brooklyn, N.Y. mom whose sons, ages 9 and 16, attend BlueStreak, a specialized sports training program at Chelsea Piers in Manhattan. "If they want to eventually play college, which they're hoping for, then they need to do some individualized training."

Stephenson's older son, Idris, made the varsity basketball team at the Dalton School in Manhattan as a freshman. But he was benched for most of his sophomore year as bigger and stronger kids beat him out.

Stephenson tells ParentDish her husband found BlueStreak, which charges about $60 for a two-hour session. He thought the small-group program would help Idris prepare to compete for the starting point guard position his junior year, so they signed him up last March.

"It was a turning point for him," she says. "He really wanted to get to the next level."

Stephenson says her son didn't need much coaxing. He was excited by the prospect of bumping into professional athletes who were also training at Chelsea Piers. And, she says, her 9-year-old son, who started training there in June, also loves it.

But the costs can add up, both financially and physically.

Over the years, some parents fork over the equivalent of a four-year college tuition for trainers, mental coaches and traveling teams in the hopes their kid will win a scholarship.

"What's $50 a session if it saves you $100,000 when he goes to college?" says David Scott, an exercise physiologist and coordinator of the KID-FIT program at Goryeb Children's Hospital in Morristown, N.J. "Parents tell me, 'She better get a scholarship because I paid $50,000 for a travel team.' It's insane."

The chances, however, of actually winning a scholarship are slim, at best. Less than half a percent of boys high school soccer players win a scholarship every year, according to a study by the National High School Federation and the NCAA. Your best chance for a scholarship is in girls' golf, where 1.6 percent of athletes get at least a partial scholarship.

And, while parents are draining their bank accounts, kids are getting hurt.

Of the 3.5 million children under age 15 who are treated for sports injuries every year, half suffer from overuse injuries, according to Safe Kids USA, a child safety organization.

"Every single year it seems that we see more and more kids in our physical therapy centers," says Will Haskell, director of strength and conditioning for Athletico Oak Brook, a physical therapy and fitness center in Chicago.

Haskell says he sees 12-year-olds come into the center recovering from injuries such as Tommy John, an elbow ligament replacement surgery named after the former Yankee pitcher -- injuries typically seen in older professional athletes.

Many of the trainers ParentDish spoke with pointed to parents and team coaches as the problem, not the kids.

"When there's a scholarship on the line, you push your kids. But if you have a sprained ankle, you have a sprained ankle and you have to take the time off," says Maik Wiedenbach, owner of Adler Training in New York City, who offers private sports training to kids and teens for $100 to $120 a session.

But a good personal trainer can improve a child's health. Trainers can tailor a program to fit specific needs, monitoring diet and how many days a week and how hard a kid works out. They can also catch bad habits before they lead to injuries.

Nikolay Solow, 20, a sophomore rugby player at Arizona State University, began training with Wiedenbach when he was playing football in junior high school. Despite protests from school coaches, Solow and many of his teammates skipped team weightlifting sessions to work with personal trainers. They found the coaches weren't able to customize training for each player's needs.

In fact, it was when he was training with high school coaches that Solow tore his meniscus, a cartilage knee injury.

"I don't think it would have happened with Maik," he tells ParentDish.

However, trainers and physiologists say the sports training industry is full of unqualified people who take two-day online certification courses or have no real knowledge of an adolescent's unique physiology.

"They run these kids into the ground," he tells ParentDish. "We had a kid who fractured his back in a program."

For some kids, it's not an injury or poor performance that sends them packing. It's burnout. They have no time to rest if they're training seven days a week. By age 13, 70 percent of kids drop out of youth sports, according to Stop Sports Injuries, an American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine campaign. They cite the top three reasons for drop out as: adults, coaches and parents.

Scott, of Goryeb Childen's hospital, says he has seen sports burnout rise during his 17 years coaching youth soccer.

"They show up to practice and they don't want to be there," he says. "What parents need to understand is that even elite athletes have rest days."

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My son is 11 and plays travel baseball. He wants to make the middle school team next year, but organized sports has become so competitive that anything you can do to help your child reach his potential is necessary for those kids that are good athletes but not always the top teir. He began going to group personal training this summer and it has improved his speed and agility-there are some habits that kids develop that can be corrected by knowledgeable and qualified trainers to improve their performance. If a parent makes a decision to do this for their child as long as it is an informed choice and qualified trainer than it can be a great boost to a young athlete's potential.

Agreed......not to mention these parents forget that natural talent rules over any excessive training these kids will receive.

What are the chances that most kids are even good enough to get a scholarship (full ride) in sports. Slim to none. You're chances are better when you balance hitting books with some extra curriculars. I hope most of these over bearing parents are wasting their money.

It can be a very healthy thing, and well worth the price. I paid for private coaching for both my daughters - now 22 and 19. Neither played sports in college. Both were successful athletes in high school and had scholarships at Div 2 schools, but rather chose to study at Div 1 schools. No regrets. Why? It boosted the confidence in themselves during critical years. Neither think they have to chase boys but rather have many healthy relationships because of the shared sports interests. Both are healthy in body and mind. Neither are interested in crazy partying, but still enjoy socializing with many friends. Neither have ever suffered injuries, because both were trained properly. This was their fun... they asked for it, they enjoyed it, and today they are proud of all those early accomplishments. I followed them closely and enjoyed watching them play all those years.

Unfortunately, in today's fast pace world of sports a child that wants to play in high school and or college and is decent in the sports doesn't have a chance against kids that are going the extra mile. High school coaches demand kids do these activites. My oldest daughter wanted to play varsity soccer in high school was a very good player (above average) she didn't play on a "club" team so she could not be on varsity it was mandatory to be on the coches team. she played JV three years and deciden't not to play her senior year-ironically the JV could beat the varsity her junior year, so no scrimmages that year.

My youngest played water polo and we had to travel 55 miles to get her on a team that would be reconized by the school and colleges. She got a four year full ride at a D-I and it paid off for us, not all kids did so well. It is a gamble and a costly one. My daughter is the most decorated athlete in high school but this and a buck will get a coffee at a cheap coffee shop. Was it worth the price, I think in our case it was.

Parents have valid reasons to be concerned. These "personal trainers" have very little formal training and little actual knowledge of the human body, other than the names of the basic muscles. I joined a health club and then signed on with one of their male personal trainers for workout regimen for me so I wouldn't injure myself. Unfortunately, he seemed to have a "no pain, no gain" mentality and after my first workout with him, I injured my back and was in so much pain I couldn't move, much less work out at the health club, but I was still supposed to pay my club dues. It took multiple doctor visits (at my own expense) to get a letter to give to the club to confirm that I was injured so they'd suspend the monthly dues. One visit to a female physical therapist helped me more than all the other doctor visits (who only wrote prescriptions for pain killers and couldn't figure out what was wrong). With a "hands on" diagnosis, this female physical therapist was able to diagnose what was wrong and gave me a series of of stretches to do to mend my back. From this experience, I learned that I know my body better than anyone else and I know when too much is too much, so now I listen to my own counsel and my own body for my workouts.

All trainers' credentials should be checked. BlueStreak is an excellent facility, a licensee of Athletic Republic. Most trainers who work there and at other AR facilities have B.S. or higher in addition to NCSA, ACSM certificates and more. These are equivalent, in many cases to advanced degrees. Additionally they have 30-70 hours of additional training to make the training as appropriate and safe for the specific athlete as possible. Each athlete is evaluated for flexibility and any muscle imbalances, gait irregularities, etc. Most are located in facilities which offer physical therapy as well. It is an opportunity for the athlete, and a means of gaining coaching they might not otherwise have. The kids are smiling coming and going because they know they are getting what they give. True, it does come at a price, but any parent who is involved with their child's education knows that advantage can be gained with specialized training. Ask the parent of any child musician, writer or academic. You see potential or desire, you sacrifice to find resources to develop that.

This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard of. Whatever happened to letting kids be kids? We need to encourage our children to be more active and put down the video games, but hiring a personal trainer in hopes of a scholarship? It just doesn't work that way.

What ever happened to encouraging kids to get academic scholarships? Hire tutors, not trainers -- and the kids will have employable skills. A mediocre football player works the drive through when he grows up. A college graduate can still support a family.

Excellent comment! I don't see Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, Johns Hopkin's etc., setting their reputation on a great football, basketball, etc. team but by academics. It seems many of these parents are willing to spend a college tuition in the hopes of a scholarship to...uh..pay for a college tuition..hummm...maybe they need to go back to community college and take a basic course in economics or financial planning, along with statistics. Since statistically the chance of many children actually getting that hoped for athletic scholarship is about as probable as winning the lotto and economically they may end up paying the equivilent of 2 college tuitions, if they are starting the kids off in middle and junior high school (1 tuition for the training and 1 when the kid actually needs to go to college).

We aren't allowed to be kids the minute we step into being a teenager. When I started middle school it was considered childish to play games outside of sports, and it was immature to put anything before sports and school work. I just started high school, and NOTHING comes before school and sports. It's insane. I wish I could have been a kid longer, but it's just not "allowed" anymore.

This story makes a lot of since, It's all about EXPERIENCE.. Who could bring in more ($$$$) to home games, a kid that never played a sport in their lives, or an experienced player? Same with a job. No one would hire a sales rep that never had any experience in sales. So, why do you think that not just any kid can make a team of his/her choice? He/she could if they had experience knowing about the game of his/her choice.

I played softball from the time I was old enough to throw, and in my teens I went to a pitching coach to improve my game. He was a great coach who helped me become a better pitcher. And I had fun! My parents were encouraging without being pushy and didn't dump a fortune into the sport. It was something that my whole family could enjoy, not a carreer.The main thing to keep in kind is MODERATION. Don't spend your savings on something as fleeting as children's sports; when the kid gets hurt (because in any atheletic endeavor there's a risk of injury) give them time to heal; don't become that parent who "yells because they care" because all it does is send the wrong message to the kids; and have fun! Seeing your kid have fun and do their best (even if it's not all that great) should be the pinnacle of kid's sports, not grooming them to be the next Big Name in sports. It's only as fun for them as you allow it to be.